Recording the Vitamins of African Music

Abstract

In this article I examine the contemporary relevance of the field recordings of sub-Saharan African music made by Hugh Tracey and stored at the International Library of African Music. I consider how ethnomusicological recordings from previous eras can be used to circulate knowledge and further understanding about African music and societies today. The current archival practice of digital preservation brings recordings to new and broader audiences, but can also further divorce sound recordings from their source communities. I consider the validity of “sound elicitation” work where recordings of Xhosa music from the 1950s were circulated among Xhosa communities in South Africa today in order to generate novel ethical approaches to the curation of archival sound recordings.